1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to magnetic heads and more particularly to magnetic heads having a film structure.
Film heads are often fabricated utilizing photolithographic techniques to successively deposit a number of films over a substrate. These films include a pair of magnetic films separated by a plurality of insulating films. One or more turns of conductive material are deposited within the insulating films and operate as the sense winding of the head.
After the deposition process has been completed, the bottom of the substrate is milled, or lapped, to remove a portion of the magnetic material so as to define pole faces. One of the insulating layers extends between the magnetic layers to the pole faces. One or more additional insulating layers serve to separate the magnetic layers from the conductive turns within the body of the heads. One of these insulating layers has an edge which is located a predetermined distance from the pole faces. At this edge, the separation distance between the magnetic layers begins to increase over its value at the pole faces. The distance from the pole faces to the point at which the spacing between the magnetic films begins to become greater than the gap length is termed the "throat height". Typically, the gap length may be on the order of twenty microinches and the throat height on the order of forty microinches. The latter height is not critical as long as it is greater than zero (i.e., the lapping does not continue to the point where the magnetic layers begin to diverge) and is less than some predetermined maximum length (typically 50 microinches).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic throat height control has been achieved in the past by the provision of a lapping guide (or sensor) which causes termination of the lapping process at the right time. However, because of the very small dimensions of the throat height, the positioning of the lapping guide becomes critical if correct throat height is to be achieved. Prior art lapping guides have not always been able to achieve the desired accuracy of positioning with respect to the insulating layers which define the point from which the throat height is measured.
Various lapping guides for film type magnetic heads are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,821,815 to Abbott et al., 3,787,638 to Murai and 4,155,106 to Muraoka et al. Despite the benefits provided by such sensors, they are not entirely satisfactory for the purpose of controlling throat height.